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July 28,1925. v 1,547,168

w. A. HANCE 1 STOVEPIPE DAMPER Filed March 1, 1923 Patented July 28, 1925.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE. I

WILLARD A. HANCE, OF FREEPORT, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO STOVER MANUFACTUR- ING- & ENGINE (10., F FREEIORT, ILLINOIS,A CORPORATION OF ILLINOIS.

STOVEPIPE DAMPER.

Application filed March 1, 1923. Serial No. 622,003.

To all whom, it may concern Be it known that I, IVILLARD A. HANoE, a citizen of the United States, residing at Freeport, in the county of Stephenson and State of Illinois, have invented a certain 'new and useful Improvement in Stovepipe Dampers, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to the class of stove pipe dampers in which a disc or valve plate, capable of closing the interior of a conventional form of stove pipe, is mounted upon a handle carrying spindle passed through openings commonly made by the point of the-spindle itself in opposite sides of the pipe and cooperating bearings formed upon the valve plate. The market for these devices is such that they have to be made with very small expense and yet be very satlsfactory and eflicient in use.

The object of this invention is to improve such a device in providing a handle carrying spindle which is very efficient as a punch for forming the holes in the stove pipe; 1n providing improved means on the valve or damper cooperating with improved means on the spindle for locking the spindle and damper plate together, and in providing a novel spring supporting washer on the spindle for controlling the spring which is conventionally used on the spindle adjacent to the handle.

The invention consists in a device capable of attaining the foregoing and other objects and particularly in the features and details of construction which will be hereafter more fully set forth in the specification and claims.

Referring to the drawings in which like numerals designate the same parts throughout the several views:

Figure 1 is a view taken transversely across a stove pipe showing in side view the damper device of this invention.

Figure 2 is a sectional, plan view taken on the central, horizontal line of Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a detail view of a portion of the spindle and the spring engaging washer cooperating therewith.

Figure 4 is an inner end view of the washer.

Figure 5 is a view at right angles to Fig. 3 of the parts shown in Figure 3.

Figure 6 is a plan view of the handle thereto,

The damper or valve plate 10 is detachably, rigidly mounted upon a spindle 12, journaled in perforations 1a and 16, in a stove pipe 18 in conventional manner.

The spindle 12 carries at one end a sharpened point 20, adapted to conventionally in the hands of an operator-make the perforations 14 and 16, wherever along the length of pipe 18 the operator may desire to install the damper plate 10. In order that this sharpened spindle may readily perform this function, without injury to itself and with the use of a minimum of outside tools, it is necessary that a conventional cross-handle 22 at the opposite end of thespindle be applied to the spindle in a very rigid and satisfactory manner. For the reasons enumerated, it is also necessary that this connection be made at the minimum of expense. The result desired is attained in this invention by making the spindle 12 of strong yet bendable metal, severing it at its handle end in the elongated cut 24 and then curving the half-end members 26 closely around the spindle in the preferably V-shaped groove 28 provided for it. The result of the construction just described is the operator can take one of these spindles and hammer the handle end all that may be necessary to drive the sharpened point 20 through a stove pipe 18 without in any way damaging the spindle itself or the connection between the handle and the spindle.

For reasons not entering into this invention, the damper plate 10, shown in the drawing, is provided with a central aperture 30 through which gas or other material in the pipe 18 may always pass regardless of the position of the damper. The spindle 12 is adapted, except as hereafter described, for rotation with reference to the damper '10 in oppositely curved straps 32 and 34 formed in the damper 10 on opposite sides of this perforation 30. The spindle 10 is further adapted for detachable rigid locking with reference to the damper by oppositely disposed lugs 36 formed in the spindle 1tself,'slidably engaging oppositely disposed inclined cam trackways 38 formed in the body of the damper 10 in conjunction rotated as much as desired, and that, if it is left at a position of 90 from that shown in Figures 1 and 2, the lugs will pass between the trackways 38 and the spindle can. be entirely removed from the damper.

The drawings show trackways 38 on opposite sides of the perforation 30; The second set is merely for use in case the operator desires to insert the spindle in the opposite direction from that shown in Figure 1 through the damper 10, in which case the lugs 36 on the spindle will engage the left hand set of cam trackways instead of the right hand set as shown in the drawings.

In order to permit this reversal of the spindle with reference to the damper plate,

the latter is provided on its opposite outside edges in alignment with flaring hollow lugs 42 normally enclosing the spindle and so shaped internally as to assist in guiding the point 20 of the spindle into its proper position with reference to the damper 10 and the lugs 32 and 34 thereon.

In order that the damper may when the parts are in the normal position of Figures 1 and 2 be automatically locked on the spindle through the engagement of the lugs36 with the cam trackways 38, it is necessary that a conventional form of spring 44'be provided bearing atone end on the handle 22 (or the parts 26 of the spindle) and exerting pressure at the other end against some stationary object as, for instance, the exterior of the pipe 18. It is also necessary in providing a practical commercial device that this spring'do not fall off from the spindle every time the spindle is removed from the damper-plate 1 0 and, consequently, from the pipe 18. The result desired is accomplished in this invention by placing upon the spindle a metal washer 46. having a central perforation 48 for the reception of the spindle, this perforation being provided with side openings 50 adapted to permit the. washer to pass the lugs 36, these side openings being bordered with spring lips 52, extending from the side of the washer opposite to the handle 22 as shown in the drawings, partly across the openings 50 and adapted to be sprung aside by the lugs 36 to permit the washer to bemoved along the spindle past the lugs 36 in the direction of the handle 22,

but, by engagement with said lugs after being moved past them, to prevent accidental movement of the washer past said By theuse of the construction just de scribed, the spindle spring desirably as shown considerably shorter than the distance between handle 22 and lug 36 and washer 46 can be sold as a separate article of manufacture without serious probability of the parts becoming accidentally separated, yet the parts just enumerated can be assembled as shown in the drawings with the plate 10 to form a thoroughly efiicient device in which the spring 44 when left to itself always forces the lugs 36 onto the cam trackways 38 thus insuring proper operation of the damper 10 when the handle 32 is rotated.

The lugs 36 are, in the particular case here illustrated, made in a preferred manner by simply pinching up the material of the spindle 12 thereby reducing the diameter of the spindle at the point where these lugs are placed and, consequently, reducing the required size of the washer 46.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. In a device of the class described, a spindle carrying at one end a handle and having a lug projecting therefrom at a distance from said handle, a washer engageable on said spindle having a recess therein whereby it may be moved along the spindle in the direction of said handle past said lug when said recess is alined with said lug, means preventing movement of said washer in an opposite direction along said spindle when said recess is alined with said lug, and a spring on said spindle between said handle and said washer.

2. In a device of the class described, a spindle carrying at one end a handle and having a lugprojecting therefrom at a distance from said handle, a washer engageable on said spindle having a recess therein, a spring tongue projecting from said washer at the side thereof opposite to said handle partly across said recess adapted to be sprung aside by said lug to permit the washer to be moved along the spindle in the direction of said handle past said lug when said recess is alined with said lug, and

acting positively by engagement with said lug to prevent movement of said washer in an opposite-direction along said spindle past said lug, and a spring on said spindle between said handle and said washer.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto subscribed my name.

WILLARD A. HANCE. 

